Reckless Spite Discussion

2 weeks ago

Hey man! I always liked zombies... it was one of my decks when I was growing up and still getting clubbed by my brother in Magic. I have some suggestions:

Zombie decks are, by nature, creature-based. Creature-based decks are, by nature, extremely vulnerable to boardwipes. Obviously, I don't know how your specific list plays, but experience tells me that this will be a problem. I suggest considering mass-recursion spells, the best of which for this deck is
Patriarch's Bidding
. After a boardwipe nukes your board, this card will get it back; or even if you don't get smacked with a
Wrath of God
,
Patriarch's Bidding
will reanimate creatures you bin with
Varina, Lich Queen
.

Path to Exile
is a touch card to make work in EDH. In formats like this, people are all trying to do high-cost, busted things -- so ramping opponents is often actively dangerous. Additionally, one-for-ones are not the best in a format with three opponents (as having three opponents means you're facing three times as many cards). I suggest you consider things like
Reckless Spite
or
Ashes to Ashes
instead of your
Path to Exile
or
Snuff Out
, as these are invariably more efficient ways to kill threats.

Varina is blue, which means you have access to some of the best cards in the game. Though
Ponder
and
Preordain
may not look like much, there's a reason they're super-duper-banned in modern and
Ponder
is restricted in Vintage. These two give you a level of unparalleled card-selection, meaning marginal opening sevens go from ok to good really fast.
Brainstorm
is a similar card, though I am more reserved about it do to the potential of getting stuck with two dead cards on top of your deck ('
Brainstorm
Locked'). With your fetches, like
Misty Rainforest
or
Flooded Strand
,
Brainstorm
becomes very powerful; I advise you run it.

Card-advantage is real good in EDH. I realize that
Varina, Lich Queen
IS a sort of card-advantage herself (most good commanders are), but there's room for more -- especially since, sans other cards like
Alhammarret's Archive
, she is not card-POSITIVE. I see you're running
Gravecrawler
. Pairing this sucker with
Skullclamp
results in instant fun, as having the ability to ': Draw two cards' is kind of dumb. It is worth noting that this does not work if you have lords on the table who pump up the
Gravecrawler
's toughness; however, with a sac-outlet like
Carrion Feeder
out, this problem is solved. Spell-based card advantage can also be very relevant.
Painful Truths
is a card I've been very impressed with in three-color black decks, and
Fact or Fiction
's putting cards in your graveyard seems very synergistic with your Zombie theme.

A lot of your dudes are gonna die in a sacrifice deck. In order to get card-advantage out of this, you should run
Grim Haruspex
,
Midnight Reaper
and/or
Harvester of Souls
. Unfortunately, these don't trigger with token-deaths, but they'll still help a lot.
Deathreap Ritual
is similarly powerful and triggers with token deaths, though it only triggers once a turn.

RAMP: I think you're running too many lands for an aggro deck; also, your ramp package has room for improvement. Replacing a few lands with rocks and potentially some more creatures can make the deck a lot better.

Ancient Tomb
: This is a great piece of land-ramp and can land a signet or talisman on turn one.

REMOVAL: You have a lot of good removal spells, mainly because a lot of your removal is more than a one-for-one (see
Fell the Mighty
,
Crackling Doom
and
Return to Dust
). In a format with three opponents, you typically want to be doing more than trading one-for-ones, a notable exception being
Swords to Plowshares
, which is an absurdly powerful card. I suggest running some of the following:

Fire Covenant
: This is EXCELLENT spot removal, as it differentially kills what you need to kill.

Wear / Tear
: Usually a two-for-one. Any red-white deck in EDH should run this.

Toxic Deluge
: This is a great board-wipe, especially for decks with a lot of counters that get your own creatures' toughnesses up. As an added bonus, you can cast it while
Gaddock Teeg
is down.

MISCELLANEOUS: There're some other cards you might like. Consider the following:

Shared Animosity
: One time, many moons ago, I built a modern goblins deck with this. It was alright/terrible in Modern, but in a relatively slow-moving format like EDH it can be a real powerhouse.

Smallpox
/
Pox
:
Smallpox
is easily one of my favorite cards in EDH, and may be good with your high land count, even if you choose to cut three or four lands. It'll depend on your meta and your final deck list. It could be awful, but it could be good.
Pox
is much more likely to be terrible, but is worth having on your radar.

Suppression Field
: You're running very few planeswalkers, fetches, and with a little crafting, you can have very few creatures and/or artifacts with activated abilities. In my meta, this card is absurd. Especially against me.

Price of Glory
: This discourages instant-speed interaction. In a deck like this, it's very likely to hose blue-players without really touching you.

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